Another herb bites the dust

[geni]

Ok it's not technicaly a herb.

A popular alternative eczema treatment called "starflower oil" has little impact on the condition, say doctors.
Patients given the extract fared no better than those trying a placebo drug, experiments found.


source (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3314753.stm)

[BTox]

I was going to say I never heard of it but upon reading it is called borage oil here.

[Eos of the Eons]

For some odd strange reason I find Primrose Oil helps my eczema...taking it orally. I have allergies like crazy, and my skin is affected the most by them.

I feel all woo woo, can this be possible?

http://www.healthy.net/asp/templates/article.asp?PageType=article&ID=1856

[Zep]

It is not unexpected that SOME oils and other herbal preparations MAY have some effects, good or bad, for some conditions or illnesses in humans. In this way have many good medicines been found, and are still being found.

The herbalists' task should really be to (a) confirm that the effects are indeed quite genuine, and then (b) determine the active ingredients, any contra or side effects, safe dosages, etc, etc. But that would make then *gasp!* scientists! To do otherwise is "woo-woo."

[Eos of the Eons]

Originally posted by Zep
It is not unexpected that SOME oils and other herbal preparations MAY have some effects, good or bad, for some conditions or illnesses in humans. In this way have many good medicines been found, and are still being found.

The herbalists' task should really be to (a) confirm that the effects are indeed quite genuine, and then (b) determine the active ingredients, any contra or side effects, safe dosages, etc, etc. But that would make then *gasp!* scientists! To do otherwise is "woo-woo."

Makes sense. You can see on the page I linked to that they are studying the effects, and have tabled out what evidence there is for some effects, and what evidence is not available for other effects.